Showing posts with label geology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geology. Show all posts

Friday, November 13, 2015

Pluto's Cup-Capped Mountains

Before the New Horizons mission, we knew Pluto was very cold, had little or no atmosphere, and that was about it. (October 30, 2015; July 10, 2015)

Now scientists think they've spotted 'ice volcanoes' on Pluto that look a lot like shield volcanoes on Earth and Mars.
  1. Ice Volcanoes on Pluto: Maybe
  2. Background: Why Counting Craters Matters
New Horizons headed for 2014 MU69: for a flyby in January, 2019. And that's another topic.


(From NASA/APL/Southwest Research Institute, used w/o permission.)
(New Horizons position at 2200 UTC/1600 Central Standard Time. (CDT) (November 12, 2015))

Using Our Brains


Earth isn't flat, poetry isn't science, and curiosity isn't a sin. There, I've said it. Again. Repeatedly. (July 24, 2015; March 29, 2015)

Briefly — we're rational creatures, created in the image of God, and "little less than a god." Studying this universe, and using that knowledge is part of our job. So is using our power responsibly. (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7; Psalms 8:6; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 35-36, 282-289, , 355-373, 1704, 2292-2295, 2402, 2415-2418, 2456)

"Little less than a god" isn't God. Forgetting that gets us in trouble. (June 19, 2015; March 29, 2015)

We're supposed to use our brains. Thinking is not a sin. (Wisdom 7:17; Catechism, 35, 159, 1730-1738)

I run into folks whose attitude toward science and (new) technology is ambivalent, at best. I figure Job 5:6-7 is right that "...man himself begets mischief, as sparks fly upward."

As Thomas Aquinas said, blaming our tools doesn't make sense. (June 12, 2015)

1. Ice Volcanoes on Pluto: Maybe



(From NASA/JPL-JHU/SWRI, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Wright Mons is located south of Sputnik Planum on Pluto"
(BBC News))
"New Horizons: Pluto may have ice volcanoes"
Jonathan Amos, BBC News (November 9, 2015)

"Two possible ice volcanoes have been identified on the surface of Pluto.

"They are seen in images returned from the New Horizons probe, which flew past the distant dwarf planet in July.

"The mountains are several km high and tens of km across, and each has what appears to be a depression in the top.

"Unlike Earth volcanoes that spew molten rock, Pluto's volcanoes - if that is what they are - would likely erupt an icy slush of substances such as water, nitrogen, ammonia or methane....

"...if cryo-volcanism can be established, it would be an immensely exciting discovery.

"While the phenomenon has been postulated to occur on several outer Solar System bodies, nothing really convincing has been detected; certainly not in terms of mountain-building.

"The two candidates at Pluto are found just south of Sputnik Planum, the smooth plain on the planet's equator.

"They have been informally called Wright Mons and Piccard Mons...."

(From NASA/JPL-JHU/SWRI, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Piccard Mons (L) and Wright Mons (R): The colours denote height. Blue is low; brown is high; green is intermediate in height"
(BBC News))

We're getting a look at a bigger fraction of the planet's surface than we did in Mariner 4's flyby of Mars. I'm pretty sure scientists will want a Pluto orbiter for follow-up observations. (October 30, 2015)

Meanwhile, there's a great deal of data to work with — about 20% of the total stored on New Horizons. The first "Pluto journal paper" came out last month. I'm quite sure that many more will follow:
Pluto's cup-capped mountains look a lot like Earth's shield volcanoes, and similar structures on Mars.

Olympus Mons, the tallest known mountain in the Solar System — that's a composite image from the Viking 1 orbiter (June 22, 1978) — is almost certainly a shield volcano, like Earth's Hawaiian islands, but on a larger scale.

Landers haven't explored Olympus Mons yet, so we don't have core samples: but I'm reasonable sure that it's made of basalt, like its counterparts on Earth.

As our probes began sending back reports from other worlds, we found volcanoes on Mars, Venus, and Mercury.

Volcanoes on the Solar System's other inner planets are like Earth's: formed when liquid rock comes to the surface and freezes. Beyond our star's asteroid belt, it's a different story.

Two of Jupiter's moons have cryovolcanoes: volcanoes with cold 'lava.' Io's volcanoes are mostly liquid sulfur. Volcanoes on Enchiladas have 'lava' made of water mixed with nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and other substances.

Saturn's moon Titan may or may not have cryovolcanoes, but under all those clouds, it's hard to tell.

Triton's 'lava' is water and ammonia, with nitrogen gas mixed in at least occasionally. Voyager 2 observed nitrogen gas and dust geysers during its 1989 flyby of Neptune. The geysers were all between 50° and 57°S, close to Triton's subsolar point.

Comparing Voyager 2's observations of Triton with data we're getting about Pluto from New Horizons should tell us more about both worlds. Pluto is made of roughly the same stuff as Triton, and is about the same size.

If you haven't read enough about Pluto and Triton yet, there's more:

2. Background: Why Counting Craters Matters



(From NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI, used w/o permission.)
("This portrait of Pluto is in enhanced color, to illustrate differences in the composition and texture of Pluto's surface."
(NASA))
"The Impact of Craters"
Kelsi Singer, New Horizons science team, NASA (October 13, 2015)

"Hello! It's Kelsi Singer again from the New Horizons science team to talk about one of my favorite planetary geologic features –impact craters. They may just look like holes in the ground, but amazingly, craters can give us all sorts of useful clues to a planet's history....

"...A surface with more craters indicates that it's older, geologically, than a less-cratered surface. Pluto displays many good examples of this concept. Any guesses as to which parts of Pluto mission scientists think are younger?

"If you went with the informally named Sputnik Planum – the left half of Pluto's 'heart' feature – as a young geologic unit, then you are on the right track. So far we have not identified any obvious craters on Sputnik Planum. We can also try to put an actual date on a surface (e.g., that a given surface is 1 billion years old), but this is more difficult because it requires some knowledge of how often impactors (chunks of space debris) of a certain size hit the surface to make craters.

"Age-dating based on craters is complicated by a number of other factors as well. I will highlight one big issue here: How one 'sees' craters is affected by lighting over the planet's surface. Just like on Earth, the lighting on Pluto and Charon changes both with latitude and over the course of the day. When the sun is directly overhead, there are very few shadows cast and it is hard to see topography, but that overhead lighting makes it much easier to see dark or bright markings. The opposite is true when the sun hits the surface at a shallow angle near sunrise or sunset: topography is easy to see, but bright and dark colorations are often washed out...."

(From SwRI/Kelsi Singer, via NASA, used w/o permission.)
("These close-up images of Pluto and Charon illustrate the effect of lighting geometry on the appearance of craters."
(NASA))

Here's a closer look at that color-enhanced image of Pluto: part of the boundary between Tombaugh Regio, the 'heart;' and Cousteau Rupes. (Annotated map of Pluto, Wikipedia)

Those names may change. I talked about Pluto, names, and donuts, before. (July 24, 2015)

I like 'backgrounders' like this NASA post: your experience may vary.

A big difference between Earth and Earth's moon is how many craters each has. More accurately, how many craters are easily-seen.

Some lunar craters are fairly young, like North Ray crater: the result of an impact some 50,000,000 years back. That's "young," in geological terms; particularly for worlds like our moon, where there's not much in the way of atmosphere or plate tectonics.

Much of our moon's surface looks pretty much like it did when North Ray crater formed.

Earth's another story. Our planet has some obvious meteor craters, like Meteor Crater. It's been called Canyon Diablo Crater, and scientists call it Barringer Crater: honoring Daniel Barringer, who demonstrated that it was a meteor crater.

But visible meteor craters are so rare on Earth that calling it "Meteor Crater" makes sense: there aren't many like it, and none nearby.

Meteor Crater is about 50,000 years old. Since then, erosion has taken from 15 to 20 meters from the rim and added about 30 meters to the basin.

At that rate, there won't be much left in 50,000,000 years.

Planning Ahead



(From Christopher R. Scotese, Paleomap Project, used w/o permission.)

Meanwhile, if Earth's crust keeps moving at today's rates, in about 50,000,000 years the Mediterranean will be a mountain range, the Atlantic will be considerably wider, and Antarctica won't be quite so neatly positioned over the south pole.

There isn't much we can do about plate tectonics, not yet, but we've begun getting ready for the next asteroid headed for Earth.

Mountains have been falling out of the sky at odd intervals since Earth formed, and life recovered each time. Now that we're here, though, preventing the next extinction-level event seems prudent.

America's Congress consigned "H.R. 5587 (111th): To establish a United States Commission on Planetary Defense, and for other purposes" to committee limbo, but I think there's a chance that we won't have a replay of the Worcester incident on a global scale. (January 16, 2015)

For one thing, the United States isn't the only outfit with tech needed for space operations.

The last I heard, Reaction Engines Limited's Skylon was still in development, SpaceX may work the bugs out of its reusable launch vehicle, and many of the folks who worked on the defunded McDonnell Douglas DC-X project should still be around.

Meanwhile, Planetary Resources may have found a way around treaties that prohibit non-science/government activity in space. (May 8, 2015; January 16, 2015; October 3, 2014)

On a more positive note, India's Mangalyaan Mars orbiter, and NASA's decision to get commercial long-distance service for Mars, are — I think — hopeful signs that someone will get the job done. (October 10, 2014; August 1, 2014)

And that's yet another topic. Topics

More about Pluto and being human:
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Friday, October 23, 2015

Zircons and Earth's First Life

Bits of carbon encased in zircon crystals more than four billion years ago may have come from living creatures.

Then again, maybe not. Either way, we're learning more about Earth's long story.
  1. Zircons and Life's Dawn
  2. Jack Hills Zircons Revisited

Faith - - -



(From Efbrazil, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(This universe, so far: 13,800,000,000 years mapped onto a 12-month calendar.)

We've learned quite a bit in the centuries since in 1 Samuel 2:8 and Psalms 148:4 were written.

I'm confident that God could have made a universe that looked like Mesopotamian cosmology: but that's not what it's like.

This space-time continuum doesn't work like Anaximander's model, either. Anaximander's cosmology had Earth in the center: but he speculated that we might not be standing on the only world, and that worlds change.

Aristotle's cosmology had Earth in the center of the universe, too. He didn't think multiple worlds existed, though.

About 16 centuries later, educated Europeans like Dante Alighieri had a very high opinion of Aristotle. Some may even have had the attitude expressed by Dante, that Aristotle was "the Master ... of those who know."

Meanwhile, some academics said that other worlds might exist. Aristotle's fan base insisted there was only one: because Aristotle said so.

Arguments got heated, so in 1277 the Church stepped in. Some of the 219 points have been rescinded since then, but as far as I know, 27/219 still holds: God's God, Aristotle's not. If the Almighty decides that the visible creation has multiple worlds — that's the way it is.

I've discussed Job 9:6-7, international long-distance telephone service, and extraterrestrial life, before. (August 7, 2015; July 31, 2015; October 10, 2014; February 23, 2014)

- - - Reason, and Truth


If you've read my 'science' posts before, you probably know that I think the universe is billions, not thousands, of years old; Earth isn't flat; Adam and Eve aren't German; poetry isn't science; and thinking is not a sin.

You probably know why I think truth is important, too, so go ahead: skip down to Zircons and Life's Dawn, take a coffee break, go for a walk, or whatever strikes your fancy.

We're born with a thirst for truth.

The search for truth leads ultimately to God — but I don't see a point in ignoring the wonders and beauty of this creation. Besides, scientific discoveries are invitations "...to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator...." (Catechism, 27, 283)

I don't see a problem with studying this universe, because I think God makes it. If we discover something that doesn't fit our preconceived notions: that's out problem, not God's. (Genesis 1:1-31; Catechism, 159, 301)

It's like Pope Leo XIII wrote:
"...God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures - and that therefore nothing can be proved either by physical science or archaeology which can really contradict the Scriptures. ... Even if the difficulty is after all not cleared up and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest must not be abandoned; truth cannot contradict truth...."
("Providentissimus Deus,"1 Pope Leo XIII (November 18, 1893) [emphasis mine])
From a Catholic viewpoint, faith is "a personal adherence of man to God." It's also "...a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed...." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 150)

Faith isn't blind, or stupid. It's not supposed to be, at least.
"1 Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

"This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh be longs to God,

"and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus 2 does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world."
(1 John 4:1-3)
"Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason."
(Catechism, 35)
I add another post to my faith and reason, science and religion link list almost every Friday. Cultural quirks and conflicts of the last couple centuries notwithstanding, it's science and religion, faith and reason. (Catechism, 36, 286, 355-373, 2293)

Goodbye, Hadean Eon?


A supereon is the largest unit of geologic time; a supereon is divided into eons; eons eras; eras into periods, epochs and ages. None of that will help you avoid traffic jams or avoid ring around the collar, but I think stuff like this is fascinating. Your experience may vary.

Nobody talked about the Hadean eon before 1972, because that's when geologist Preson Cloud first used the term. The Hadean is named after Hades, since scientists figured Earth was a hellish place back then — from the time Earth formed to 4,000,000,000 years ago.

It still looks like Earth was a profoundly inhospitable place for life right after it formed. On the other hand, bits of carbon sealed in zircon crystals probably came from living critters.

The crystals are well over four billion years old: which means we have more to learn about Earth's early eras.

1. Zircons and Life's Dawn



(From Elizabeth A. Bell, Patrick Boehnke, T. Mark Harrison, Wendy L. Mao, via PNAS, used w/o permission.)
("Transmission X-ray image of RSES 61-18.8...."
(Elizabeth A. Bell, Patrick Boehnke, T. Mark Harrison, Wendy L. Mao)
"Ancient crystal suggests life on Earth appeared 4.1 billion years ago"
Richard Valdmanis, Reuters (October 19, 2015)

"An ancient zircon crystal unearthed in Western Australia may hold evidence that life appeared on the planet 4.1 billion years ago, or about 300 million years earlier than previously thought, according to a team of U.S. researchers.

"Scientists from Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles said they recently collected some 10,000 multibillion year-old zircons in Jack Hills, Australia, including one believed to contain a carbon deposit that is 4.1 billion years old, give or take 10 million years....

"...Scientists have used the fossil record to assert that the history of life on Earth began about 3.8 billion years ago, in the form of single-celled creatures. Humans are believed to have first appeared on Earth only about 200,000 years ago...."
About that last paragraph. We've found microfossils in the Greenstone Belt, very old exposed rock in South Africa, that are about 3,500,000,000 years old. Graphite found in western Greenland that probably came from the carbon in living critters is about 3,700,000,000 years old.

Here's what scientists who worked with these zircons said:
"...Life on Earth is an ancient phenomenon, with the earliest identified microfossils at nearly 3.5 billion years before present (Ga) (1) and the earliest potential chemofossils at 3.83 Ga(2, 3)...."
("Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon," Elizabeth A. Bell et al. | references to (1) "The oldest records of photosynthesis," Awramik SM, Photosynth Res 33:75-89 (1992) and (2) "Evidence for life on Earth before 3,800 million years ago," Mojzsis SJ, et al., Nature 384(6604):55–59 (1996)
The Reuter article's "...humans are believed..." is fairly accurate — provided you consider anatomically modern humans as "human" and everybody else as "not human." I don't, and I've been over that before. A lot. (September 18, 2015; September 11, 2015; July 11, 2014)

If the carbon in these zircons came from living critters, that means life started on Earth before the late heavy bombardment (LHB) — and survived that cataclysm, or started again, almost immediately after it stopped raining asteroids.

Or maybe the late heavy bombardment didn't happen. The last I checked, scientists were still undecided on whether the LHB is real, or a misinterpretation of data. (July 31, 2015)

Rethinking the Hadean


Zircon, ZrSiO4, is hard, durable, and chemically inert.

When this particular zircon crystal, RSES 61-18.8, formed, it encased tiny bits of carbon. For the next 4,100,000,000-odd years, RSES 61-18.8 remained intact: preserving the carbon.

What makes this carbon special is that it's "isotopically light:" δ13C, or Carbon-13. Isotopes are elements with an unusual number of neutrons. Carbon-13 can come from non-living processes, but it's almost always produced by critters.

Finding carbon that was almost certainly part of something living more than four billion years ago is a big deal, at least for some scientists:
"...Scientists had long believed the Earth was dry and desolate during that time period. Harrison's research — including a 2008 study in Nature he co-authored with Craig Manning, a professor of geology and geochemistry at UCLA, and former UCLA graduate student Michelle Hopkins — is proving otherwise.

" 'The early Earth certainly wasn't a hellish, dry, boiling planet; we see absolutely no evidence for that,' Harrison said. 'The planet was probably much more like it is today than previously thought.'..."
("Life on Earth likely started at least 4.1 billion years ago — much earlier than scientists had thought," UCLA Newsroom)
It's starting to look like life started even earlier than scientists thought. If that's true, we may have to re-name the Hadean eon — or, more likely, revise the geologic time scale again.

That's been going on since the late 18th century, when Abraham Gottlob Werner and others started talking about Urgebirge, Übergangsgebirge, Flötz, and Aufgeschwemmte series. I've mentioned Nicolas Steno and stratiography before. (May 1, 2015)

These scientists — not Werner and company: the PNAS paper's bunch; Bell, Boehnke, Harrison, and Mao — used confocal Raman spectroscopy with a green laser to study the carbon without disturbing the surrounding zircon crystal.

Raman spectroscopy uses inelastic scattering, is named after Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, and has nothing to do with noodle soup.

More that you probably need, or want, to know about these old zircons:

2. Jack Hills Zircons Revisited



(From Robert Simmon, NASA; NASA Earth Observatory; used w/o permission.)
"Diamonds hint at 'earliest life' "
Jonathan Fildes, BBC News (July 2, 2008)

"Tiny slivers of diamond forged on an infant Earth may contain the earliest traces of life, a study has shown.

"Analysis of the crystals showed they contain a form of carbon often associated with plants and bacteria.

"The rare gems were found inside zircon crystals, formed a few hundred million years after the Earth came into being.

"Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers caution that their results are not definitive proof of early life but do 'not exclude' the possibility.

" 'We're all a little sceptical,' said Dr Martin Whitehouse of the Swedish Museum of Natural History and one of the authors of the paper.

"If the carbon was derived from primitive organisms, it would push back the date for life appearing on Earth by around 500 million years, to beyond 4.25 billion years ago. The Earth itself is just 4.6 billion years old...."
More nitpicking — Scientists are quite sure that Earth is 4,540,000,000 years old, plus or minus 50,000,000. That's pretty close to "4.6 billion," though.

"Dr. Martin Whitehouse," "zircon," and "Jack Hills," gave me enough to find the paper discussing "tiny slivers of diamond:"
The zircon grains those scientists studied were up to 4,252,000,000 years old — and again, the scientists couldn't be absolutely sure that the carbon-13 came from critters. But, as the BBC article said, they couldn't be sure that it wasn't, either.

Recognizing the limits of data and analysis is the sort of healthy skepticism that keeps scientists from jumping off the edge of reality: with occasionally-spectacular exceptions.

I've talked about Boule's Neanderthal, Hawkin's "grim Monsters," H. P. Lovecraft, and SETI, before. Fairly often. (September 11, 2015; July 24, 2015; November 21, 2014; June 27, 2014)

We've learned a lot since I was in high school.

Neuroscientists are learning how our brains are rewired by experiences, astronomers determined how fast this universe is using energy, other scientists are developing mathematical models for continua other than the space-time we're in, and that's another topic. Topics. (August 14, 2015; March 27, 2015; September 26, 2014)

Like I keep saying, there's more to learn:
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Friday, August 7, 2015

Organics on a Comet, and Earth's Early Magnetism

Scientists found evidence that Earth's magnetic field is more than a half-billion years older than we'd thought. As usual, that raises more questions.

The European Space Agency's Philae lander detected a "rich array" of organic compounds on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P, including hydrogen cyanide (HCN). This is a big deal, since much of Earth's water came from comets: and HCN may have helped life begin on our world.
  1. Earth's Magnetic Field: 4,000,000,000 Years Old?
  2. Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P: A "Rich Array" of Organics
Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P's closest approach to the sun comes later this week:


(© ESA, from ESA, used w/o permission.)
("The orbit of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and its approximate location around perihelion, the closest the comet gets to the Sun. The positions of the planets are correct for 13 August 2015."
(rosetta, esa (July 13, 2015; updated August 7, 2015)))

My look at a comet, Earth's youth, and all that, comes after yet another 'why I prefer reality' review. It's pretty much what I've said before, so go ahead: skip down to Earth's Magnetic Field: 4,000,000,000 Years Old? or Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P: A "Rich Array" of Organics, sort your socks, do whatever you like.

Beyond Anaximander's Cosmology


Someone asked me why I talk about "gods" and science in A Catholic Citizen in America. The person may have been puzzled at my interest in both spiritual and visible facets of reality.

That's understandable. Ever since the mid-19th century, a remarkable number folks seem convinced that a person can either be a Christian or be interested in science.

"Bible science," warping science trivia around Bible verses and vice versa, is as odd as the either/or position. My opinion. (July 5, 2011)

Some of my country's louder Christians seem determined to maintain the perception that faith and reason, religion and science, get along about as well as mongoose and cobra.

I think, and for their sakes hope, they're sincere: but I'm quite sure they're wrong.

I could follow Our Lord and believe that we live on a flat plate that's only a few millennia old, or in the middle of nested celestial spheres.

But my faith doesn't depend on ignorance of what we've learned since Plato fine-tuned Anaximander's cosmology. (July 31, 2015; September 26, 2014)

Last week's "Pluto, Earth 2.0, and Life in the Universe" prompted that question.My reply was brief: necessarily, since it appeared on my Twitter account. (@Aluwir)

The '25 words or less' version is that I like living in the real world. I kept thinking about the question, though, and how I could explain my interest in creation and in the Creator.

God, Faith, and Accepting Reality


My parents were nice, normal, mainstream Protestant folks; but I grew up in a town where a particularly virulent strain of anti-Catholicism was endemic.

I don't see the point in believing something's true and not acting as if it matters. I also don't see a point in believing something that makes sense Sunday morning, but not the rest of the week.

Radio rants against the 'whore of Babylon,' commies, and rock music, were punctuated by the latest End Times Bible Prophecy and vehement attacks on Satanic evils like evolution and long hair.

Venom-spitting radio preachers unintentionally helped me learn to love rock-n-roll, and left me with unanswered questions about religion, Christianity, and the Catholic Church.

Eventually I decided that religion wasn't necessarily a personality disorder, and that Christianity made sense.

Much later I became a Catholic.

As a Catholic, I must believe that faith isn't reason, and that faith is not against reason. I can know a few things about God by using human reason: but there's more to reality than that. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 35, 50)

Faced with reality, I must decide whether or not I accept it. Acknowledging a newly-discovered facet of reality isn't always easy: but I think it's worth the effort.

"...Truth Cannot Contradict Truth..." — or — God's not a Schlemiel



(From John Martin, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
(Detail from John Martin's "Pandemonium," 1841.)

Seeking truth and seeking God are compatible — and turning my brain off isn't part of the process. (Catechism, 154, 274, 1706)

Well-intentioned folks occasionally warn me that I'll burn in everlasting hellfire because I don't agree with them about something. Generally the topic is the Catholic Church, or evolution. (July 25, 2014; March 15, 2015)

I'll be talking about a comet, organic molecules, and life's beginning; and don't want to clutter that up with an explanation of why reality doesn't offend me. I went over most of this last week. (July 31, 2015)

Truth is very important. (Catechism, Prologue, 27, 74, more under Truth in the index)

I believe that God creates everything: the physical realities that science studies; and the spiritual realities that faith pursues. Believing this, believing that God is is Truth, and fearing knowledge of God's world would be — illogical.

Pope Leo XIII discussed truth, faith, and getting a grip, more than a century ago. "Providentissimus Deus" means "Provident God," more or less, a hot topic in the late 19th century. Then as now, it looks like some folks were profoundly upset that the Bible isn't a science textbook, or that God's creation doesn't conform to their preferences.

Pope Leo carefully pointed out that since we believe that God creates everything, and isn't a schlemiel, if a newly-found facet of reality doesn't match our preconceived notions of what's true: that's our problem, not God's.

If we keep looking at the facts, use our brains, and don't assume that our preconceived notions are the only possible explanation, sooner or later we'll understand:
"...God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures - and that therefore nothing can be proved either by physical science or archaeology which can really contradict the Scriptures. ... Even if the difficulty is after all not cleared up and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest must not be abandoned; truth cannot contradict truth...."
("Providentissimus Deus,"1 Pope Leo XIII (November 18, 1893) [emphasis mine])
That didn't stop some folks from insisting that God is offended when we use our brains, and others from asserting that God can't exist because we are learning about God's creation.

We have brains and free will. Each of us decides how we act and what we believe: or do not believe. Responsibilities come with that freedom, and that's another topic. (Catechism, 1731-1742)

Living in a Big World


Studying this astounding universe, and using that knowledge, is part of being human. Scientific discoveries are invitations "...to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator...." (Catechism, 159, 283, 341, 2293-2295)

What we learn occasionally demands that we re-think old assumptions.

That's been happening quite a bit over the last few centuries.

Ussher's tidy little cosmology has been replaced by a view of reality that's literally cosmic in scale. I don't mind: and although I enjoy flights of fancy, I prefer living in the real world.

As for my interest in science and my faith — We've known that the universe is vast and ancient for thousands of years.
"4 Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.

"But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent.

"For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.

"And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? "
(Wisdom 11:22-25)
Learning that it's a whole lot bigger and older that we thought a few generations back doesn't bother me. At all. (July 15, 2014)

Adam and Eve Aren't German


The small Minnesota town I live in isn't as exclusively German and Irish as it was a century ago, but a good many folks around here look like the couple in Albrecht Dürer's 1504 engraving. We wear more clothes, of course.

Scientists have learned a great deal about humanity's long story since Dürer's day: much of it in the last century.

Along the way many folks and most scientists dropped the assumption that looking European and being intelligent are pretty much the same thing.

I don't miss the 'good old days,' particularly since I'm nearly half-Irish, and that's another topic. (December 12, 2014; September 5, 2014)

As a Catholic, I must take Sacred Scripture seriously. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 101-133)

But that emphatically does not mean I must believe a long-dead Calvinist was right about the moment of creation being nightfall before October 23, 4004 BC. (July 24, 2015)

As I keep saying, I think the universe is billions, not thousands, of years old; Earth isn't flat; Adam and Eve weren't German; poetry isn't science; and thinking is not a sin.

Believing that we are created in the image of God, male and female, means that each of us is a person: not something, but someone. We are made from the stuff of this world, and filled with God's 'breath:' matter and spirit, body and soul. (Genesis 2:7; Catechism, 355, 357, 362-368)

I read Genesis 1:1-2:4 and 2:4-25 as an explanation of God's role in our existence: among other things.

As far as I'm concerned, all that's changed in the last few centuries is how much we know about the "clay" God used. (July 24, 2015; December 5, 2014)

Now, finally, what we're learning about this planet we call home, and the universe.

1. Earth's Magnetic Field: 4,000,000,000 Years Old?



(From Michael Osadciw/University of Rochester, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The Earth's magnetic field deflects high energy protons from the Sun, as depicted in this artist's impression. Note that the relative sizes of the Earth and Sun, as well as the distances between the two bodies, are not to scale"
(BBC News))
"Earth magnetic shield is older than previously thought"
Yasmin Ali, BBC News (July 31, 2015)

"The Earth's magnetic field, which shields the atmosphere from harmful radiation, is at least four billion years old, according to scientists.

"This is 550 million years older than it was previously believed to be.

"Scientists at Rochester University in New York analysed crystals found in Western Australia.

"Data on our planet's magnetic field was found to be preserved in ancient crystals embedded in rock formations in the region...."
That's according to some scientists, with reservations. The Rochester University team studied one set of very old crystals. I'm pretty sure  they're right, that Earth had a measurable magnetic field 4,000,000,000 years back.

But we'll need more data before being certain that the field endured for the following 550,000,000 years. My guess is that it did: but that's just a guess.

Yasmin Ali's article discusses how the scientists analyzed the crystals, and what sort of follow-up research the new findings encourage.

Instead of repeating that, I'll take a quick look at what we've learned about Earth's magnetic field since Shakespeare's day.

A few centuries after natural philosophers like Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus studied natural phenomena, William Gilbert made a terrella: a spherical magnet, simulating Earth's magnetic properties. (Merriam-Webster)

Gilbert's terrella showed that his idea, that Earth acts like a giant magnet, was probably right. A magnetic compass, placed over Gilbert's terrella, pointed more-or-less north: just like a magnetic compass would at corresponding places on Earth.

Gilbert apparently was the first to say that Earth's core is iron. This may be why Georges-Louis Leclerc used iron as his test substance in the 1700s, but I haven't confirmed that. I talked about Leclerc, Earth's age, and getting a grip about beliefs, last week. (July 31, 2015)

His "De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellur," published in 1600, wasn't spot-on accurate about everything.

We've learned since then that the angle of the ecliptic and precession of the equinoxes aren't caused by magnetism, for example; and that electricity and magnetism aren't separate phenomena.

Hans Christian Ørsted noticed that electric currents create magnetic fields in 1820, which brings me back to Earth's magnetosphere.

Magnetospheres: There's a Lot Left to Learn


Earth's magnetic field keeps the solar wind, mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles streaming from our star, away from our atmosphere.

For the most part, at least. Auroroa in polar regions happen when particles from the sun turn parts of our atmosphere into a sort of glow stick — which are more like lightning bugs/fireflies, actually, and that's another topic.

Having a magnetic field may be why Earth supports life and Venus doesn't. At least, if something's living on Venus: it's not "life as we know it." Surface conditions there make the hot spots in Dante's Inferno seem like air conditioned comfort.

Then again, although Venus is losing its atmosphere to the solar wind, its mostly-carbon-dioxide blanket is a good deal thicker than our nitrogen-oxygen mix.

Air pressure at the Venusian surface is about 92 times Earth's sea level pressure, and doesn't drop to Earth-normal pressure and temperature until you get about 50 kilometers up.

I'm quite sure that Earth won't turn into another Venus when Earth's magnetic poles switch places. That happens every 100,000 to 1,000,000 years, more or less: and the last big shift happened long after our ancestors showed up.

We didn't have communications satellites then, but we've probably got a few millennia to get ready for the next big switch. Then again, maybe not. As I keep saying, we still have a lot left to learn. (October 24, 2014)


(From UC Berkeley, used w/o permission.)
("...This map shows how, starting about 789,000 years ago, the north pole wandered around Antarctica for several thousand years before flipping 786,000 years ago to the orientation we know today, with the pole somewhere in the Arctic."
(UC Berkeley))

2. Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P: A "Rich Array" of Organics



(From ESA/Rosetta/NavCam, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
(Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P on July 14, 2015, an image from the Rosetta spacecraft's NavCam.)
"Comet yields 'rich array' of organics"
David Shukman, BBC News (July 30, 2015)

"The spacecraft which made a spectacular landing on a comet last year has discovered a rich array of carbon compounds.

"One leading scientist has even described the chemicals as 'a frozen primordial soup'.

"This supports the theory that comets may have seeded the early Earth with the ingredients for life.

"The findings came after the lander, known as Philae, touched down on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko 67P in November....

"...Prof Ian Wright of the Open University, who leads another instrument, Ptolemy, said the results were 'really interesting'.

" 'I see this cometary material that we're analysing as frozen primordial soup. It's the kind of stuff that if you had it, and warmed it up somehow, and put it in the right environment, with the right conditions, you may eventually get life forming out of it.

" 'What we may be looking at here is our abiological ancestral material - this is stuff that went into the mix to produce life.

" 'In many ways it's quite a humbling thing to be working on, because this is life before life happened.'..."
The Ptolemy experiment found polyoxymethylene — don't bother trying to remember these names, there will not be a pop quiz — a polymer of formaldehyde. It's organic, in the sense that the compound contains carbon.

Finding polyoxymethylene on a comet is a big deal, since carbohydrates like glucose, sucrose, and fructose are biologically important, and made from the same atoms.

Folks put sucrose on the kitchen table and formaldehyde in factories because the atoms are arranged differently, and don't affect living critters the same way.

COSAC (Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment), another instrument on the Philae lander, detected 16 compounds: including what BBC News calls methanenitrile.

In my dialect of English, that's hydrogen cyanide. Other names for HCN are formic anammonide, hydrocyanic acid, and prussic acid. It's derived from Prussian blue, which probably dates back to Berlin in the early 1700s, and that's another topic.

"...More Like a Hardware Shop..."



(From ESA.Risetta.NPS for Osiris Team/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA, via BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The mission has revealed an intriguing landscape on Comet 67P"
(BBC News))
"...Prof Mark McCaughrean, the European Space Agency's senior science advisor, told BBC News: 'Imagine you want to build a house and you go to a forest, where there are trees, mud and rocks. You could make a house out of that, but it would be hard work.

" 'Well, we've now discovered the comet is more like a hardware shop - lots of pre-made building blocks, like door frames, bricks etc. It gives you a head start.

" 'One of the big questions, though, is this material made on the comet? Or is it made first in space and then incorporated into the comet? We don't know the answer to that yet.'..."
(David Shukman, BBC News)
We also don't know life began on Earth. Not yet.

Earth's changed quite a lot over the last 4,540,000,000 or so years, and critters have been recycling just about anything organic on our planet for at least 3,600,000,000 years. We've learned a great deal about Earth's story in the last few centuries: and have a great deal left to learn, including how life started.

Finding hydrogen cyanide on a comet is a very big deal, since the compound might be a precursor to amino acids and nucleic acids. Then again, it might not.

We've learned that up to half of Earth's water comes from interstellar space, where we've found surprisingly complex organic compounds. (December 5, 2014; October 3, 2014; July 11, 2014; October 18, 2013)

"Organic" doesn't mean "alive." I've talked about life, chemistry, and space vampires, before. (January 2, 2015; September 5, 2014)

More than you need to know:

Clay and Secondary Causes


Folks didn't know about magnetospheres and Ediacara biota when Genesis was first written, more than two dozen centuries ago. Two-dozen-plus centuries from now, I'd be astounded if we haven't discovered a few new facts about this universe.

Believing that God creates, and knowing that a fire's light and heat involve electron transitions, doesn't plunge me into a crisis of faith, plagued by doubts over Deuteronomy 5:4 and Acts 2:3.

I haven't heard of anyone insisting that salvation depends on belief in Johann Joachim Becher's teachings regarding Phlogiston, and that's another topic. (April 10, 2015)

Scientists are pretty sure that life on Earth started very roughly 1,000,000,000 years after this planet formed. What we don't know is how that happened, the physical processes involved. (Abiogenesis, Wikipedia)

From my viewpoint, the panspermia hypothesis, that life originated elsewhere and fell to Earth, isn't much of an explanation. If we got solid proof today that life on Earth started on Mars — that still wouldn't tell us how life itself started. (December 5, 2014)

Scientists have learned quite a bit, but the 'origin' question is still pretty much where it was in the 1920s, when Alexander Oparin and J. B. S. Haldane pointed out that chemical reactions probably led to the first critters. There's been a bit of progress, of course: including discussions of protocells.

Finally; about faith, science, and all that —

I don't have to believe that physical realities exist or that God exists.

Everything we observe reflects some facet of the Creator's truth, according to its nature. (Catechism, 300-310)

Fire, gravity, all natural processes, involve secondary causes: creatures changing in knowable ways, following laws woven into this creation. (Catechism, 301-308, 339)

Since I believe that God creates everything, and that God is not a liar: nothing we learn about this universe can threaten an informed faith.

More, mostly about:
1 A longer excerpt, and a link to Leo XIII's encyclical:
"...God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures - and that therefore nothing can be proved either by physical science or archaeology which can really contradict the Scriptures. If, then, apparent contradiction be met with, every effort should be made to remove it. Judicious theologians and commentators should be consulted as to what is the true or most probable meaning of the passage in discussion, and the hostile arguments should be carefully weighed. Even if the difficulty is after all not cleared up and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest must not be abandoned; truth cannot contradict truth...."
("Providentissimus Deus," Pope Leo XIII)
Full text, English translation:
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Friday, May 8, 2015

Climate Change, Deccan Traps: Still Learning

Scientists found a two-century lag between temperature changes near Earth's poles — and maybe a "bipolar seesaw" temperature cycle.

Other scientists say that shock waves from the Chicxulub impact may have triggered volcanic eruptions in the Deccan Traps and elsewhere.
  1. Ice Cores and a Climate Lag
  2. Deccan Traps and the Chicxulub Impact
We don't, I think, have all the answers about how Earth's climate changes and what we should do about it: but we're discovering what some of the questions are. That's a good start.

Aristotle, Galileo, and All That


We've come a long way since Aristotle said we live in the sublunary sphere where stuff changes: unlike his heavenly bodies that didn't change, had always existed, and always would.

Aristotle's opinion carried considerable clout 16 centuries later, when the Church prohibited folks from claiming that Aristotle's preferences outvote God. Some rulings of 1277 got reversed in subsequent centuries: but not the basic idea — God's God, Aristotle's not. (February 23, 2014; January 29, 2012)

A bit later, observations of a supernova and comet wouldn't fit into Aristotle's cosmology.

Tycho Brahe measured the 1572 supernova's position over several days. Since it didn't move against the background stars, he decided that it was very distant — certainly not a terrestrial phenomenon.

A few months later, he noted that it still hadn't moved: suggesting it was farther away than the planets. Brahe didn't think much of the folks who still insisted that the "nova stella" had to be an earthly phenomenon, because Aristotle said the heavens don't change.

Then in 1577, Brahe observed the Great Comet of 1577 and compared notes with Tadeáš Hájek. Brahe, on Hven, and Hájek, in Prague, had observed the moon and comet. Their measurements made sense only if the comet was a lot further away than the moon.

Galileo was turning 13 at the time. He observed Kepler's Supernova in 1604, and got in trouble for insisting that his (at the time unproven) theories were facts. It didn't help that some theologians of the day didn't realize that poetry isn't science, and that's another topic. (April 18, 2014; October 26, 2009)

Aristotle was right about our part of the world changing, though:
"...The same tracts, therefore, of the earth are not some always sea, and others always continents, but every thing changes in the course of time."
("Meteorics," Aristotle, translated by Charles Lyell, via Wikipedia)
We've discovered that today's continents grew around what geologists call cratons. These cratons haven't changed all that much over the last few billion years, although they've gotten pushed around as Earth's lithosphere moved.

Gothic Cathedrals and the Universe


I've drifted off-topic. Let's see: cosmology, Aristotle, astronomy, more Aristotle, continents. Got it.

Giorgio Vasari blamed the Goths for destroying ancient Roman buildings and inventing a "barbarous German style" — like Sante-Chapelle. I think designing stone buildings whose walls are mostly stained glass is nifty: but I'm a Norwegian-Irish-Scots-American who married a German-Dutch-English-American. I'm pretty "barbaric," myself.

Anyway, European society had been getting puréed by the Renaissance for nearly two centuries when Martin Luther touched off the Protestant Reformation in 1517. I've discussed newfangled ideas, Joshua 10:13, and getting a grip, before. (July 18, 2014)

Around 1650, a Dublin-born Calvinist published a history of the world. He said the first day of creation started at nightfall on Saturday, October 22, 4004 BC. That was a reasonable estimate — in the 17th century.

Meanwhile, Danish scientist Nicolas Steno — a pioneer in anatomy and geology — was questioning assumptions about fossils. Turns out, he was right: Fossils don't grow in the ground.

Somewhere around 1778, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon decided that Earth was roughly 75,000 years old. Instead of basing his estimate of Bible verses, the Count had measured how fast iron cools. He was wrong, by quite a few powers of ten.

In 1862, William Thomson figured it would take 20,000,000 to 400,000,000 years for Earth to cool to what we have today. His figures didn't take radioactive decay into account: understandably, since we didn't know about it at the time.

We're reasonably sure Earth is 4,540,000,000 years old, plus or minus 50,000,000. Our current estimates are based on analysis of radioactive decay in samples from Earth, our moon, and meteorites.

That number has been tweaked a bit during my lifetime, but I'd be very surprised if scientists are off by more than a fraction of a percent.

Some folks still insist that a 17th-century Calvinist was right about Earth's age: including, oddly enough, some Catholics.

Me? I'm willing to take God's universe "as is."

Pursuing Truth


Nicolas Steno's parents were Lutherans, and so was he: until he studied comparative theology in Florence. He became a Catholic on All Souls day, 1667. Steno's studies turned from science to theology, and he eventually became a bishop.

Nicolas Steno was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on October 23, 1988. Other renditions of his name in my language are Niels Stensen and Nicolaus Steno.

Folks are beatified for displaying holiness.1 Lacking curiosity is not a requirement, or St. Albertus Magnus would never have become patron Saint of natural sciences. For Catholics, thinking is not a sin. (November 21, 2014; February 23, 2014)

Thinking, being a rational creature, is part of being human. Using our brains is optional, so is how we use them, and that's yet another topic. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1730-1742)

This universe, filled with order and beauty, is an invitation to "greater admiration" for God's greatness. I think accepting that invitation makes sense. Bottom line, faith and reason get along: or should. Faith is deciding that I'll trust God, and cooperate with reality. (Catechism, 31-35, 154-155, 283)

There's more to life than studying this astounding universe: but pursuing truth does not threaten an informed faith.
"...I would urge them to continue their efforts without ever abandoning the sapiential horizon within which scientific and technological achievements are wedded to the philosophical and ethical values which are the distinctive and indelible mark of the human person. Scientists are well aware that 'the search for truth, even when it concerns a finite reality of the world or of man, is never-ending, but always points beyond to something higher than the immediate object of study, to the questions which give access to Mystery'...."
("Fides et Ratio," Pope St. John Paul II (September 14, 1998))
"...if methodical investigation within every branch of learning is carried out in a genuinely scientific manner and in accord with moral norms, it never truly conflicts with faith, for earthly matters and the concerns of faith derive from the same God...."
("Gaudium et Spes," Pope St. Paul VI (December 7, 1965))
"...truth cannot contradict truth...."
("Providentissimus Deus," Leo XIII (November 18, 1893))
As I've said before — science and technology, studying this universe and using that knowledge to develop new tools, is part of being human. Ethics apply, of course: whether we're using the latest tech, or nothing but our fingers and teeth. (Catechism, 2293-2295)



1. Ice Cores and a Climate Lag



(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("The Antarctic core provides a comparison with records from Greenland"
(BBC News))
"Ice cores show 200-year climate lag"
Stephanie McClellan, BBC News (May 5, 2015)

"Scientists have found a 200-year lag time between past climate events at the poles.

"The most detailed Antarctic ice core provides the first clear comparison with Greenland records, revealing a link between northern and southern hemisphere climate change.

"Scientists found that abrupt and large temperature changes first occurred in Greenland, with the effect delayed about 200 years in the Antarctic...."
Climate change is real: and, as I've said recently, it's not new. Earth's climate has been changing ever since the planet formed, some four-and-a-half billion years back.

What's new is how much we know about Earth's story: including the most recent glacial epoch, that started around the time we arrived. (February 20, 2015)

This BBC News article talks about "very abrupt and large swings in temperature approximately 20,000 to 60,000 years ago."

Let's put that in perspective.


(From Lisiecki and Raymo (2005), via Wikimedia Commons; under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later; used w/o permission.)

That graph shows average temperatures at Vostok Station in Antarctica — based on analysis of an oxygen isotope in deep-sea ocean sediments. My guess is that it's not spot-on accurate: but not very far from what actually happened.

More about Earth's most recent five million years of climate change:
The "41 kyr cycle" is a Milankovitch cycle: regular variations in how far Earth's rotational axis wanders. The "100 kyr cycle" is another cyclic variation in Earth's axis: and an issue for folks trying to make sense of Milankovitch cycles.

Earth's equator is tilted 23.44 degrees from the ecliptic today. It tilts up to 24.5 degrees, and is on its way to the 22.1 degree minimum at the moment. The cycle takes about 41,000 years: hence the "41 kyr (kiloyear)" name.

Milutin Milanković made the connection between these changes and Earth's climate a little less than a century back. His theory wasn't popular when I was in high school, but data collected since the '60s shows that he was on the right track: or that Earth's climate changed the way he said it did, by some wild coincidence.

Earth is much more than 5,000,000 years old, though: and hasn't been the same since the dinosaurs died.

A Half-Billion Years of Climate Change



(From Robert A. Rohde, from published and publicly available data, incorporated into the Global Warming Art project; via Wikimedia Commons; under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later; used w/o permission.)

Again, this graph comes from analysis of deep-sea sediments. I'm quite sure it isn't an exact fit with reality: but I'm also confident that it's pretty close to what's happened.

Earth's current ice age started very roughly 3,000,000 years back. That's continental glaciers started spreading on North America and Greenland — and when the Isthmus of Panama closed, stopping circulation between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Scientists think shifting ocean currents helped start the glaciers, but we're not entirely sure. The Tibetan plateau has been getting higher, too.

I suspect we're learning how much we don't know almost as fast as we're solving existing puzzles. The good news is that we're learning: a lot, very fast.

One more graph, and I'll get back to ice cores and this week's science news.


(From Dragons flight, from publicly available data, part of the Global Warming Art project; via Wikimedia Commons; under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later; used w/o permission.)

Again, this is a pretty good estimate of Earth's average temperature, based on analysis of oxygen isotopes. The Phaerozoic is what scientists call Earth's current geologic eon. It started 541,000,000 years ago, give or take 1,000,000, when critters like Trilobites and reef-building Archaeocyatha appeared.

Looks like Earth in humanity's day is colder than it's been since the Andean-Saharan glaciation, 460,000,000 to 430,000,000 years ago — when Earth's second-largest cluster of extinction events happened. The big one happened about a quarter-billion years later. (April 24, 2015)

We're accustomed to a world where a mile-deep glacier covers most of Greenland. Earth has been colder, but not by much. The last I heard, scientists still aren't sure if we're in an interglacial period: or if the Quaternary glaciation is finally over.

"...We Still Don't Know...."

"...The 3,405 metre-long ice core, taken from the centre of West Antarctica, is the longest high resolution ice core. Researchers documented 18 abrupt climate events.

" 'This record has annual resolution, meaning we can see information about every year going back 30,000 years, and close to that resolution all the way back to 68,000 years ago,' explains Eric Steig, professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, who co-wrote the paper.

" 'Our new results show unambiguously that the Antarctic changes happen after the rapid temperature changes in Greenland. It is a major advance to know that the Earth behaves in this particular way.'

"The new core also supports the 'bipolar seesaw' effect between poles, meaning that when it's warm in Greenland, Antarctica is cooling, and vice versa.

" 'The fact that temperature changes are opposite at the two poles suggests that there is a redistribution of heat going on between the hemispheres,' said Christo Buizert, lead author on the study and a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University.

" 'We still don't know what caused these past shifts, but understanding their timing gives us important clues about the underlying mechanisms.'..."
(Stephanie McClellan, BBC News)
Professor Steig said the 200-year lag points to Earth's ocean as the heat transfer medium. Atmospheric heat transfer would take years, maybe decades: not centuries.

As Christo Buizert said, "we still don't know" why these climate shifts happened. But we're learning.

Temperature Swings: There's More to Learn



(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)
("Cores contain a record of past temperature swings"
(BBC News))
"...The team has planned further studies to really unpack the annual resolution seen in the core.

"Prof Steig concluded: 'We've actually been talking about and planning for this ice core for essentially my entire career.

" 'I remember an old colleague of mine telling me how we should go to this spot in Antarctica and drill an ice core in 1989 when I was beginning graduate school. And we've only really just finished the work about 25 years later.' "
(Stephanie McClellan, BBC News)
We've come a long way in the last hundred years.

Oswald Avery identified DNA as the genetic material in chromosomes, Jonas Salk developed polio vaccine, Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem — and Helmut Landsberg applied statistical analysis to climatology, "which led to its evolution into a physical science." (Wikipedia)

Many folks apparently replaced unbridled optimism about science and technology — with equally-unrestrained fear of science and technology. Or, perhaps more likely, the loudest folks in a new generation wore a different set of intellectual blinders.

I don't see science and tech as a panacea, or a bogey man. Whether they help or hurt humanity depends on our decisions: blaming our tools makes no sense. Not to me.

I also don't see a problem with regulating Earth's climate: after we learn how it works. Part of our job is managing Earth's resources: wisely, with respect for the integrity of creation, and with a concern for future generations. (Catechism, 2415-2418)

Geoengineering should wait until we have a few more answers. Today, we're still learning what questions to ask. (February 20, 2015; June 15, 2014)

More:

2. Deccan Traps and the Chicxulub Impact



(From Richards et al, UC Berkeley; via ScienceDaily; used w/o permission.)
("Illustration of a hot mantle plume 'head' pancaked beneath the Indian Plate...." ScienceDaily)
"Did dinosaur-killing asteroid trigger largest lava flows on Earth?"
University of California - Berkeley, ScienceDaily (April 30, 2015)

"The asteroid that slammed into the ocean off Mexico 66 million years ago and killed off the dinosaurs probably rang the Earth like a bell, triggering volcanic eruptions around the globe that may have contributed to the devastation, according to a team of University of California, Berkeley, geophysicists.

"Specifically, the researchers argue that the impact likely triggered most of the immense eruptions of lava in India known as the Deccan Traps, explaining the 'uncomfortably close' coincidence between the Deccan Traps eruptions and the impact, which has always cast doubt on the theory that the asteroid was the sole cause of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction...."
"It's complicated" seems to describe most aspects of Earth's long history.

Volcanic eruptions had been forming the Deccan Traps before the Chicxulub impact: but these scientists say they've found evidence that lava flow increased after the impact.

Shock waves from the impact could have felt like a magnitude 9 earthquake everywhere on Earth — triggering more massive eruptions in the Deccan Traps, and in other volcanically active areas.

As we learn more about the dinosaurs' last days, it looks like they might have survived the Chicxulub impact: if gasses from eruptions in the Deccan Traps hadn't been dropping Earth's temperature as sea level fell.

It was not a good time to be a dinosaur.

Whatever blasted out the Chicxulub crater may not have been alone. There's serious doubt about whether the Shiva formation west of Mumbai/Bombay, India, is an impact crater, but the Boltysh crater in Ukraine is definitely from an impact.

The Boltysh crater is only 24 kilometers, 15 miles, across: but whatever made it hit Earth within a thousand years or so of the Chicxulub event. One of today's unanswered questions is whether these two impacts were a statistical fluke — two of many impacts around that time.

Cosmic debris big enough to trigger an extinction-level event come at (apparently) irregular intervals of much more than ten million years, on average. Smaller bits and pieces, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk in 2013, come every century: more or less.

We're not quite ready to move an incoming asteroid into a harmless orbit: but we're nearly there, and that's yet again another topic. (January 16, 2015)


(Image © Don Davis; from PAINTINGS at www.donaldedavis.com)

More about using our brains:
1 "New procedures in the Rite of Beatification," Congregation for the Causes of Saints (September 29, 2005)
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Marian Apparition: Champion, Wisconsin

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What's That Doing in a Nice Catholic Blog?

From time to time, a service that I use will display links to - odd - services and retailers.

I block a few of the more obvious dubious advertisers.

For example: psychic anything, numerology, mediums, and related practices are on the no-no list for Catholics. It has to do with the Church's stand on divination. I try to block those ads.

Sometime regrettable advertisements get through, anyway.

Bottom line? What that service displays reflects the local culture's norms, - not Catholic teaching.